Why was Peter Svidler never World Champipn?
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He won the Russian championship lots of times, has been 2750+ much of his career, and yet he seems to be lacking something that would just push him over the top. What is it? What's his flaw?
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I think Peter would be the first to admit that he doesn't have quite the same intense competitive fire as the world champions. He sometimes gives way to self-doubt, and has been know to resign when there was still a slim possibility of holding the game, and to accept draws in positions where a Fischer, Kasparov, or Carlsen would play on almost to bare kings.
That said, he is a superb player and commentator, and high on the list of super GMs you'd like to have dinner with
The way it works for professional chess players is that they first have to prove themselves for an extended period of time over the course of several tournaments to break out both in terms of rating and visibility for organizers / sponsors / fans. If they can pull off at least a few good performances then they continue getting invitations to other similarly prestigious events and eventually their star quality grows with each new victory. What happened to Svidler, like what happened to a lot of great players who used to be in the top-10 but have since dropped off the radar, is that they had a few mediocre or poor tournaments, lost rating points, and stopped receiving calls to participate in the highest level competitions, and as a result they were ignored during the Candidates cycle process of selecting a challenger to the world championship. In other words, one bad result leads to another and before you know it, your career as a chess pro is basically over...this is the sad reality for way too many who aspired to be the best. There is so much competition out there that if you have one or two less than impressive showings, you get overlooked and pushed out and other talented players are always ready to take your spot.
All the World Champions since Elo ratings were introduced for the first time in the late 1960s have at some point of their career also been #1. "Least" of all Spassky and Kramnik, who shared first at best, Spassky on the unoffical first list from 1967. Svidler has never been top three. A great player, but just not great enough to be World Champion or ever coming close.
There are a few reasons that prevent some brilliant players becoming number one.
Svidler is a bit lazy, Morozevich is a a bit fragile, Chucky is a bit nuts, Giri is a bit cautious, Aronian is a bit coffeehouse... and so it goes.
I vaguely remember (on Chess 24) Svidler addressing, maybe not that exact question but possibly why his rating has dropped or why he wasn't interested in making an all out effort to reach the top, and I think he said he wanted a more normal life with his family, a life not so consumed with chess.
In my opinion the guy was playing terribly. His play style was absolutely disgraceful if I was there I would have killed the bisch. This is not a victory royale! I love you fellow chess players.
Yours sincerely,
xX_SexyBisch_Xx
